The Game of Life

[techrat]

A large number of them seem to be eschewing the usual get a college degree, get a job, buy a house, have a kid or two, etc, in favor of "experiences" and less "stuff"...

I don't know. As someone who has spent a lifetime aquiring "stuff"; I'm now getting into the idea of getting rid of everything, furniture included. All I'm doing now is realizing that after I die, my relatives are going to be tossing all this stuff into a dumpster. And I've got a pretty good collection of junk from my various hobbies: Vintage Computer gear, old VW parts, ham radios, thousands of tools, all kinds of electronic gear, and lots of rockets.

Having stuff made me happy, but now I kind of see it as a drag, because moving somewhere else would be a tremendous chore. Obviously there's a lot I don't want to get rid of, or I would have gotten rid of it decades ago, but I'm also realizing that unless I can box it all up into 2 or more "Pods" containers, I can never leave the house I'm in. So at least 50% of it has got to go. Some of it might be worth a few bucks on eBay, but I need to find the time to organize, photograph and get it up for sale, and then box and ship. That's almost a full-time job and I'm currently working, so, until I can walk away from my paying gig, I cannot find the time for the eBay job.

So, yeah, I think I'm with the younger generation on that one. And I never got married or had kids, so I think I'm following them on that as well -- or maybe I'm the leader of this movement and don't even realize it. The "American Dream" was a trap from the very start, which is why the divorce rate in this country is through the roof. I think too many people fall into that too quickly, get married in their 20's when they are not really ready for it, and then suffer, and realize the only way out is divorce.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I think it’s kind of weird that the Game of Life and Life cereal have vaguely similar graphical design in the “Life” name — different primary/secondary colors for each letter. When the cereal logo used blocky capital letters it was even more similar. Isn’t life strange?





I played the Game of Life a few times as a kid, and I don’t remember it very well, but I do remember it was based on a pretty conventional vision of what life and life aspirations should should be. And I remember there were random good fortune and setbacks that could move you forward and backward on the board. Maybe those could be updated and made a bit more realistic.

Born Rich! Collect a million dollars and start game 50 steps ahead!

Drug addiction! Lose 25 turns!

Disabled in negligent workplace accident! Collect $10 million settlement, but lose use of your limbs!

Find your life’s passion and purpose! Realize that money and position on the board are not very important!

Heart attack! Game over!

Regarding the original question, if I received a $50,000 windfall, I would probably spend a big part of it on travel. My wife and I are pretty lucky to have most of our necessities covered, so it would be an easy choice for us to spend it on something fun instead of paying a debt or saving it for an expense. But I also think even if you do need the money for necessities, it would make sense to use at least part of it for fun. You could spend $5,000 to do something or buy something you really enjoy, and still have $45,000 to cover necessities. That’s part of what Life is about — enjoying it. Make a memory that will help you stay sane through tough financial times and the rest of life’s worries.

 

[Bill S]

I don't know. As someone who has spent a lifetime aquiring "stuff"; I'm now getting into the idea of getting rid of everything, furniture included. All I'm doing now is realizing that after I die, my relatives are going to be tossing all this stuff into a dumpster. And I've got a pretty good collection of junk from my various hobbies: Vintage Computer gear, old VW parts, ham radios, thousands of tools, all kinds of electronic gear, and lots of rockets.

Having stuff made me happy, but now I kind of see it as a drag, because moving somewhere else would be a tremendous chore. Obviously there's a lot I don't want to get rid of, or I would have gotten rid of it decades ago, but I'm also realizing that unless I can box it all up into 2 or more "Pods" containers, I can never leave the house I'm in. So at least 50% of it has got to go. Some of it might be worth a few bucks on eBay, but I need to find the time to organize, photograph and get it up for sale, and then box and ship. That's almost a full-time job and I'm currently working, so, until I can walk away from my paying gig, I cannot find the time for the eBay job.

So, yeah, I think I'm with the younger generation on that one. And I never got married or had kids, so I think I'm following them on that as well -- or maybe I'm the leader of this movement and don't even realize it. The "American Dream" was a trap from the very start, which is why the divorce rate in this country is through the roof. I think too many people fall into that too quickly, get married in their 20's when they are not really ready for it, and then suffer, and realize the only way out is divorce.

I hear ya. I'm 58, and have been trying to slowly move stuff out that I haven't used in years. Acquiring it was fun, but after awhile that wears off. It owns you. Unfortunately my wife is a semi-hoarder, son is on the same path, so even if I get rid of a large chunk of MY stuff I no longer want, there is still a lot to leave to the son, much of which will probably be dumpstered. But he gets irritated with me when I say I may get rid of such and such, because HE wants it, even though there's no guarantee he will continue with that hobby that we now share, once girls/women enter the picture. That's already happened with rockets.

I dunno about the divorce thing. People have been getting married in their late teens/20s like forever. But there used to be a social stigma associated with divorce, which gradually went away. I was one of the early victims of easy and no fuss divorce, my parents divorcing in the late '70s, which messed me up pretty well. It would have been better if they could have stuck it out until I was 18-20, but nope. People these days seem to have no concept of being choosier in whom to marry in the first place, since they figure they can just divorce if they get it wrong. Women in particular usually get a good deal out of divorce, getting half the guys stuff and support/child support, so there is little risk in divorcing and marrying several times. The guy, he just gets screwed. If they understood that they really pretty much had to stay married with rare exceptions...it would probably happen less.

 

[teepot]

I don't know. As someone who has spent a lifetime aquiring "stuff"; I'm now getting into the idea of getting rid of everything, furniture included. All I'm doing now is realizing that after I die, my relatives are going to be tossing all this stuff into a dumpster. And I've got a pretty good collection of junk from my various hobbies: Vintage Computer gear, old VW parts, ham radios, thousands of tools, all kinds of electronic gear, and lots of rockets.

Having stuff made me happy, but now I kind of see it as a drag, because moving somewhere else would be a tremendous chore. Obviously there's a lot I don't want to get rid of, or I would have gotten rid of it decades ago, but I'm also realizing that unless I can box it all up into 2 or more "Pods" containers, I can never leave the house I'm in. So at least 50% of it has got to go. Some of it might be worth a few bucks on eBay, but I need to find the time to organize, photograph and get it up for sale, and then box and ship. That's almost a full-time job and I'm currently working, so, until I can walk away from my paying gig, I cannot find the time for the eBay job.

So, yeah, I think I'm with the younger generation on that one. And I never got married or had kids, so I think I'm following them on that as well -- or maybe I'm the leader of this movement and don't even realize it. The "American Dream" was a trap from the very start, which is why the divorce rate in this country is through the roof. I think too many people fall into that too quickly, get married in their 20's when they are not really ready for it, and then suffer, and realize the only way out is divorce.

I had been thinking for years that I needed to dispose of a lot of the stuff I had acquired over the decades. After my hospital stay in September I had the motivation to get rid of as much as possible. I filled almost two dumpsters with stuff. Gave a lot to Goodwill. When I went through one box that had things I saved from high school and college I had tears in my eyes. I have made arrangements to have my guns, ammo and other associated stuff taken care of. At some point I'll start giving away as many rockets as I can. The thought of 200+ rockets going in a dumpster makes me sick.

 

[NateB]

If you want hypotheticals where spending the windfall responsibility doesn’t matter, I'd get an AC30 with a Gibson 335 and a good 88 key keyboard. That would leave a good chunk of that windfall for a new mountain bike and travelling too.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Game of Life

https://playgameoflife.com/

 

[NTP2]

All I am saying is that I could have probably gone to a cheaper school and had the same career.

where did you get your degree?

 

[NTP2]

Game of Life

https://playgameoflife.com/

I did that already

 

[John Kemker]

I did that already

Hey, mine included source code in Python!

 

[NTP2]

Hey, mine included source code in Python!

True but maybe you should have commented so we could tell what it was.

Ps no insult intended.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Realistically, with an unexpected 50k we would probably spend 5k on something fun, and invest the rest. Now if we had 50k to blow in a use it or lose it scenario, since we are very much in the experiences over stuff camp, we'd be spending the summer in France and Spain.

 

[John Kemker]

True but maybe you should have commented so we could tell what it was.

Ps no insult intended.

It's Python. Self-commenting code!

 

[NTP2]

It's Python. Self-commenting code!

EXCUSES!!!!!!

 

[Antares JS]

where did you get your degree?

Purdue University, from out of state.